Jan 2014 . . catching up

I think Facebook was a bad thing for blogging.  I used to be so diligent in posting things to my blog and then, well . . . I lost interest when FB had updates from everyone.  But, someday, I will be glad I updated this blog!

I'm going to do a month at a time, starting in Jan of 2014 and see if I can catch up. Then, I'll go back to the end of 2013.  There is something about writing a goal down that I'm hoping will help me stay on track!

January was a month that we finally caught our breath!  After moving, a trip to Punta Cana and Christmas, it was time to finally settle into our rental house and get going on the new home!  Or so we thought.  We really thought we would break ground in January, but the construction loan process was tedious and even getting the permit had bumps in the road.  We did finally close on the loan on Jan. 30th!

So, the month passed and despite multiple trips to the lender and gathering paperwork and meeting with our builder, we still had no hole in the ground.  Friends of ours who were building were in the same boat.  Everything was just moving at a snail's pace!

Kinley began her first year of competitive volleyball and loved it and was also playing rec basketball.  What a stud.  That kid was a shooting machine, almost always having the most points on her team.   Her volleyball team was local and played in a lower division since they were up against 12 year old teams.  They actually did really well and Kinley learned a lot.  The tournaments meant being there all day and super early mornings, but she really enjoyed it, especially being with her buddies.

Go, Xtreme!

High scorer every week!

Focus

The biggest event of the month, by far, was Cooper turning 16 and then getting his driver's license on Jan. 15th.  Happy, happy day!  He was thoroughly enjoying his newfound freedom and learned in a hurry that schoolwork is hard to stay on top of when the social life comes calling.  What a weird feeling to watch him drive away by himself!  His birthday was pretty low key.  Out to dinner with Evan and Alex was all he needed.

Ready for the test!

Birthday crew

Sweet 16

Kaiya started her competitive season as well in January and what a great start she had!  Her first meet was amazing and she quickly figured out that she had the ability to win every meet on bars if she hit.  The first meet was at Adrenaline and she broke the 36 mark for the first time ever on her first meet of the season, even counting a fall on beam.  She placed 2nd on bars and AA.  The following weekend was the first out-of-state meet in Reno, NV.  It was a fun trip, but not her best meet.  Her nerves got the best of her on bars and a fall on beam sort of added insult to injury.  But, she still placed on everything and had an absolute blast with her team and coaches at the hotel.  We went bowling and had a good laugh at dinner watching Rich try to complete a food challenge.  A crazy side note was running into an old teammate of mine at the meet--someone I hadn't seen for 20 years.  She lives in Reno and was at the meet watching her old club.  Wow!! Her last meet of the month was the Winterfest Classic at DU.  She was aggressive and fell again on bars, but here's the thing--even with a fall, she placed 3rd AA and was 2nd on bars!  So fun to see her at the top of the heap and having so much success.  

Catching air

Dismount

Level 7 crew

Lots of hardware!

Such a monkey

Chillin at the airport

Fun reunion with Shannon

Love this pic

3rd AA at Winterfest!

Stolen moments

I am really behind on this blog . . . again.  Instead of trying to catch up, I decided not to.  For now, anyway.

In the midst of running like a crazy person everywhere, today I remembered a discussion with my dad not so long ago about finding time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, when it comes to my kids.  OK, that's almost impossible for me because I'm so task oriented and busy checking things off that proverbial to-do list.

But my wise father must have planted a seed because I realized I have been sneaking in those moments.  Take today, for example.  After two insanely busy nights in a row at work, I was home this afternoon catching a quick nap when Cooper surprised me by coming in.  He was on his way to the middle school on assignment for student council to talk to 8th graders about preparing for high school (um. . .weird) and had time to stop at home for lunch.  We had all of about 12 minutes, but for that 12 minutes, I was IN the moment--warming a Hot Pocket and getting a precious 12 minutes of his time.  He caught me up on everything going on in his life and then stopped and gave me a hug as he walked out.  Gulp.

Kaiya and I get 30 minutes in the car most days as I take her to gym.  30 minutes while she fills me in on her school stuff, the latest girl drama, and what's new on her Instagram page that I coudn't figure out and tips for how to get past 4 on Flappy Birds.  Yes, I suck.  I turn the radio almost off and, again, I'm in the moment.

Kinley is the last one to go to school each morning and so she doesn't even have to get up for a half hour after Kaiya walks out the door.  But we figured out, especially on mornings like today when I got in bed after work at 2:00 a.m., that between 7:30 and 8:00, we have a precious half hour that we can snuggle in my bed.  Sometimes, we both fall asleep and other times, we talk.  Ok, she talks and I try really hard to stay awake and listen.  But she knows when I come in her room at 7:30, that's our time together.  I learn a lot about what's going on in her head and in her world from 7:30 to 8.

I even got a stolen moment with my neice, Sydney, as she said, "Hold you, Haley" (translation . . . "hold me") on the morning after she spent the night at our house.  Our little earlier riser crawled into my arms to watch an episode of Dora.  I kinda miss Dora.

So today, I'm patting myself on the back.  Not so much for making an effort to be in the moment, but for how amazingly whole it makes me feel as a mom.